Bulk Carrier Explosion Causes Serious Burns to Seafarer

An explosion in one of the cargo holds of MV Sea Moon at 3:05pm on Friday caused serious injuries to one of her crew. The MV Sea Moon is a 57,012 DWT Bulk Carrier flagged by Marshall Islands. The explosion took place 140 miles southwest of Bermuda. The ship’s cargo was coal and its destination Karachi, Pakistan.

The injured crewman was a 33 year old Filipino who was initially lost overboard during the incident, and subsequently recovered via the vessel’s fast rescue craft. With the recovered sailor suffering full-body burns, the ship notified the Bermuda Maritime Operations Center announcing their intention to divert for medical evacuation and that their cargo was stable with no signs of fire. In a statement by the Bermuda Marine Operations Center, ”The Sea Moon arrived off the east end of Bermuda at 2:45am on the morning of Saturday 29th September and local authorities boarded her in company with a doctor.

The casualty was stretcher transferred to the pilot boat St David and conveyed to Ordnance Island where an ambulance was waiting to take him to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. The ship is presently at anchor 1.5 miles east of St David’s Lighthouse where she will remain until company representatives and surveyors have inspected her.”

The ship is presently anchored 1.5 miles east of St David’s Lighthouse where she is awaiting inspection. Sea Moon was built in 2009 by Qingshan Shipyard, and is classed by Bureau Veritas.